Connelly: The incredible rising costs of campaigns

Joel Connelly
| on October 18, 2017

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Jinyoung Lee Englund, pictured in a handout photo.

Photo: Campaign Photo

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Manka Dhingra, pictured in a campaign photo.

The 45th District race for State Senate has become Washington's political lesson in extravagance as Democrats and Republicans pour resources into a race that would give Dems control of the Washington Legislature.

Republican Jinyoung Lee Englund and Democrat Manka Dhingra have spent a record $2.4 million, but their spending is topped by $3.1 million by "independent" groups -- party fronts running nasty spots on cable TV and filling your mailbox with consultant-enriching flyers.

Republican groups have poured in $950,000 in recent days. Phillips 66 has given $250,000 to a GOP front called Enterprise Washington, which has also received $100,000 from Tesoro, bringing Big Oil's investment in the race to $550,000.

By matter of contrast, Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., spent just $1.2 million to win her U.S. Senate seat a quarter-century ago.

Ex-Vice President Joe Biden endorsed Dhingra earlier this week. Biden is due out here Oct. 27 for a posh Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee fundraiser hosted by Costco co-founder Jon Shirley. Shirley was host to big-ticket fundraisers for President Obama.

The DCCC event sets the stage for a massively costly battle a year off, the fight to control the U.S. House of Representatives. The 8th District in Washington will likely see records set for U.S. House races in the state.

Big name Republican Dino Rossi, less than a month into the race, has already passed the $600,000 mark.

At Biden's event, the tab for being part of the "Speaker's Cabinet" is $33,900, including a VIP picture. It'll set you back $10,000 to be a "Guest."

The 45th District race has brought California-style campaign spending up the coast to Washington. If the Dems win, the Evergreen State may get a carbon tax, which explains the gusher of donations from oil refiners. It also marks the Democrats' first place to regain control, after the disastrous loss of 927 legislative seats across the country during the Obama years.

Dhingra and Englund are both attractive candidates. Dhingra is a senior King County deputy prosecutor, new to partisan politics. Englund is a protege of U.S. Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., and a self-styled entrepreneur. Both are Asian-American women in what was once "white suburbia," Kirkland, Redmond and Sammamish.

Both campaigns are turning out volunteers at the doorstep. The Dhingra campaign recently bused in a contingent from the San Juan Islands.

But the race has become Exhibit A of an adage coined by the late California Assembly Speaker Jess Unruh: "Money is the mother's milk of politics."